Lahore - A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Friday heard a case of gas tariff of industrial units producing electricity from gas.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and consisting of Justice Ejazul Ahsan and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah dismissed a review petition filed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).
The chief justice remarked that tariff equal to industries will be imposed on the licence holders of industrial units producing electricity from gas.
The industrial units producing and selling excessive electricity will also fall in this category, court further observed.
Increase or decrease in the tariff in the future will not affect this category, the bench said. Units procuring excessive electricity will pay only the fixed tariff, the bench added.
It is pertinent to mentioning that a few days ago, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet gave approval to Rs5.2 billion worth of four months subsidy claims of the industries pertaining gas supply.
The ECC decision came on a summary related to gas/re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) supply to industrial sector. The committee had approved the subsidy claims based on 100pc RLNG supply amounting to Rs5.173 billion based on actual verified bills/claims of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).
The committee also gave approval to a proposal for permitting SNGPL to increase verified subsidy bill/claim of preceding month by 8th of every month and that the finance division to issue the subsidy within 7 days of receiving of claim from the petroleum division.